Saturday, January 24, 2009

Buffalo Collision - Duck (Screwgun, 2008) *****

Buffalo Collision is a superband of modern jazz musicians with Bad Plus members Ethan Iverson on piano and Dave King on drums, and complemented with Tim Berne on sax and Hank Roberts on cello. Berne and Roberts are musical innovators, not afraid to boldly go where no man has gone before, not always successfully, but at least daring to jump. Iverson and King are also innovators, but then of the less daring approach, more "inside" than "outside", at least that's what I thought. With Buffalo Collision they bring something unusual, music which is totally "outside", fully improvised, while remaining accessible. The four musicians bring minimalist approaches of spontaneous interaction, creating a wonderful and warm combination of melodic, slow undulating layers of eery, recognisable yet unfamiliar sounds. The first piece is a 36 minute long progressive build-up of musical tension, with explosive bursts of relief once in a while, yet the tension remains, in the implicit rhythms, the shards of sounds, the percussive cluttering, evolving into a dramatical intense middle piece, when the cello takes the lead, supported by percussive piano and almost march-like drumming, followed by a nervous solo by Berne. Sure, Berne and Roberts have been in these regions before, but I am perplexed by the agility of Iverson and King to offer a perfect fit for this special musical excursion, which after 25 minutes of tension actually explodes, forcefully, but magnificently, dramatically, and when the dust settles, sensitive beauty emerges in slow, almost repetitive hypnotic sax phrasings, which after a last emotional outburst dies down in ever quieter interplay. The second piece starts with a steady rhythmic left hand on the piano, with irregular right hand, inviting the cello in, hesitatingly, welcoming, and again King resists the temptation to go for traditional rhythmic support, rather accentuating the proceedings than building a foundation. Berne lets loose here, unleashing his energy, but without overblowing, keeping things controlled and passionate at the same time. The third track is close to 25 minutes, again as open as the first one, again as lyrical and as full of tension, and after the intense middle piece, the band creates the musical equivalent of layers of mist at sunrise, multicolored, slowly moving yet immobile, refined, subtle, and of a wonderful aesthetic, a reverie out which the listener is awakened by some tribal drumming and classical cello. It's hard to describe, but these guys have it all. The breadth, the ideas, the skills, the interaction, the sensitivity, the subtlety, the surprises. A collision indeed. Released just at the end of 2008, let's give it credit for 2009, and it will surely be on the list of albums of the year.

11 comments:

stephane
said...

Missed the guys tonight in Paris, (with an excellent excuse fortunately, another concert -Barry Guy's New Jazz Orchestra - at the same time). *sigh* The review doesn't help, reminding me of the cruel choice I had to make earlier. Ok, I had the luck to see/hear Tim Berne 5 or 6 times last year so it makes it easier. The cd is very strong, I agree and Hank Roberts (too rare a musician imho) is shining all along. Go on, put it 6 stars. :-)

Well, I went to see the band at the Beurs and have to say I was very disappointed! I was so disappointed I didn't buy the CD and at the same time I regretted not going the night before to see Food. I decided that one concert would be enough and opted for BC!

i liked the first set in Ghent, but thought the second one really lacked tension (though the end was excellent). the encore didn't do anything at all for me. maybe i went with the wrong expectations (though i tried to have none), but i was also a bit disappointed.(and apart from the drummer, the band didn't seem to be into it, but that's only an impression, of course)

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ALBUMS OF THE MONTH

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ALBUMS OF THE MONTH

Lotte Anker & Jakob Riis - Squid Police

What I appreciate in music & how to evaluate it for others

Here are some criteria which I find very important, and true, there may be overlap between them all, but they still have their specific shades and colors of value, and there may be other criteria to add.

1. AUTHENTIC : the emotions have to be real, genuine and truthful, the prime objective should be to create good music for the sake of the music itself (not in order to sell, or to show off, or any other thing ...). That's why I like improvized music, because the link between emotion, musician, sound and listener is to be found in its purest form. It's your immediate emotion you're transmitting, not someone else's. Paradoxically enough, this also includes "absence of self", as a prerequisite for true interplay, listening skills and communion between band members.

2. ADVENTUROUS : the artist/band should be looking for new ways to express what they feel and have to communicate. What's the point for the listener to hear the same kind of approach as others have tried. The surprise element, the creativity, the musical vision are part of the adventure. As a listener I want to be taken along, and explore new musical horizons.

3. ACCURATE : when you hear the sounds, you must have a reaction of "Yes, that's it!", as the sublime translation of feelings through skills and mastery of the instrument, the total sound created by a band or the newly created musical language. The sound, or just obtaining that single note which encapsulates it all, yes, then you know you've transmitted something as a musician, that you've received something as a listener, that you share something. Doing that requires accuracy and concentration.

4. ARTISTIC : by that I mean the more cerebral aspect of music. There is some concept behind it, which leads to structure, balance, length, interplay, selection of instruments, of musicians, of new approaches. This does not go against improvisation, quite on the contrary : great improvised music is all about artistic vision, clever group interaction.

5. ATTENTION-GRABBING : though music can and should require an effort from the listener, it should also include a factor of entertainment, in the sense of keeping the attention going, of being captivating. Lots of music, and especially during long soloing, contains the risk of losing the listener somewhere along the way, even if the musicians themselves are very intensively busy with interesting things. There is of course lots of music which does not take the listener into account at all...

That's my "quintuple A" internal rating system. The stars I usually give in my scoring system are not only not very accurate, they're also not sufficiently discerning. Maybe I should give stars for each of the five criteria listed above. I think the five criteria also include what in Arabic is called "tarab" : appealing to mind, body and soul alike, as far as I understood this from the liner notes from Rabih Abou-Khalil's album with the same name. I specifically did not include the qualifier "beautiful" in the list, because that's even more subjective than the ones already there, and furthermore, I did not find a good synonym for it which starts with an "a" ...